Comfort from one James Potter
by Loonyed
Summary: Lily is sitting byt the lake, lost in not-so-pleasant thoughts until she's joined by an even-less-pleasant company. Strangely though, he's actually willing to give her some help, some comfort; and even more strangely, she's willing to accept it. A small moment joining two lives that were meant to be intertwined until their end - however soon it came.


Melancholic. That's how he'd describe her.

"Lily."

She laughed humorlessly. Of course, of all people, it had to be him.

"It's Evans to you, Potter." She considering making a run for the lake and see how far she could go before everything caught up to he. She also wondered what would get to her first, her problems or James Potter, who was a whole different category of problem all on his own.

"So you've told me before." He sat next to her on the stone bench, but facing the other way, his gaze fixated at the stones in the magnificent building before him.

"And yet you still haven't learned." She was almost smiling. It was truly amazing. How did he do it? "Maybe we're dealing with some kind of learning disability here?" She stared off into the darkness of the lake; she almost felt like he was pulling her out of it. Almost.

Meanwhile James was just thankful that she had made a joke. Given, it was a sarcastic one but he was still taking that as a good sign.

He smiled.

"My OWLs would disagree with that theory, Ms Evans."

She might've smiled at this had it not triggered an unpleasant memory. She suddenly remembered who she was talking to and her conscience reminded her rather loudly and obnoxiously that she shouldn't be acting this friendly towards him. Still, something compelled her to disregard that, at least for the moment, and tease him some more.

"Oh, so you can learn Mr Potter. Hm, I guess my next 'theory' then," she didn't actually make the quotation marks with her fingers but they were quite obvious in her tone, "is that you are just a jerk and won't do what I say just because, well, because you're a jerk!" In the end of her line her voice became a little louder but nothing close to her infamous screams.

He forced himself not to laugh but couldn't stop the smirk that came instead.

"Well, how can I disagree with such solid logic?" She turned her head to hide the traitorous blush that was creeping up her face and the stubborn smile that was forming itself.

And then, as swiftly as it had disappeared, her melancholy came back, its reason remembered._ Oh, yeah..._

"What's wrong?"

The lie was at the tip of her tongue but she still had to push a lump out of her throat to get it out.

"Nothing."

"That's not true." He countered simply, almost immediately.

"You can't know that." Her tone was smug but her voice was strained. She wanted to go back to that mindless banter that distracted her so easily but was trying too hard.

"Oh, I can and I do." He looked truthfully smug and her heart skipped at the sight of his smile. "Exhibit A: you haven't yelled at me once during this whole conversation."

She gave him a nasty look but didn't deny the facts.

"Exhibit B: You're sitting out here by yourself, staring at the lake as if it would give you the answers for your problems - which, by the way, it won't, trust me."

"You don't know that either." He almost laughed at her grumbled reply.

Instead, he turned his body towards her and was fully facing her, "Lily,"

Her heart skipped a beat again, this time because of his eyes that were staring intently at her. She wished the stupid organ would stop doing that. For a second, she actually considered telling him everything.

What was wrong with her?

"I just.. I just don't want to talk about it, you know? Don't worry, I'll figure it out. I always do. I mean, it will be all right."

"Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself."

"Yeah and you're not helping." He would've laughed but he didn't think she was joking. He turned to the other side, swinging his feet over the bench, and now staring at the lake as she had before. The red-head seemed to resent the excess of movement but didn't say anything.

"Okay."

"Okay?" She looked at him

"I get it. I won't try to fight it out of you. If you're not ready to talk about it, I guess it's better that way. But when you are," he looked at her and caught her staring back, "I'm here, you know? And I'll always be." He started feeling self-conscious under her gaze and looked away , "or you know, you could go to your friends too. I guess."

She couldn't believe it, James Potter looked almost insecure. It was kind of cute.

"Thank you."

"Hm? Oh yeah, um, you're welcome I guess."

She then proceeded to get lost in her thoughts. James on the other hand had no idea what to do. He considered putting his arm around her shoulders but he didn't want to risk all the progress he had made in those short minutes.

It took a while but she finally realized that her arrogant housemate had been quiet for too long and that she probably had, too. She couldn't resist but to sneak a peek at him. He was staring at her with a forced, overly-stretched smile on his face.

She couldn't help but to think that he looked like an idiot and held back her giggles.

"What?" She chose to get defensive which, to her, made things easier to deal with.

"Nothing, just trying to make you feel uncomfortable."At that, he beamed.  
She debated whether or not she should punch him. In the end she just shook her head.

"Come on, I'm funny and you know it."

"Ha! Now, That's funny."

"Ouch. So beautiful and so cruel."

She gave him a look and got up.

"Where are you going?"

"Inside. You know, places to be, essays to write." He scrunched up his nose at the mention of homework.

"Well, you have fun with that. I'll enjoy this beautiful day."

"Same lazy, irresponsible James Potter as ever." She walked away shaking her head. However, she halted after a few steps. The shadow came back to her eyes and she wondered how long this would keep haunting her.

James saw her turn around, the lightness gone from her movements.

She hesitated.

"It is going to be okay... right?"

After he got over his surprise, the dark-haired boy turned to the lake for a moment, seemingly thinking over the question. Lily was about to remember him of his words, that the answers weren't there, but she stopped in her tracks when he looked back at her.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is." And he smiled. So did she. She turned on her heels and walked back, sighing with relief.

Deep in her mind a voice told her that she shouldn't be relieved just because James Potter said it would be alright but she very happily ignored that.

As he saw her walk back to the castle, her voice sounded inside his head,_ 'You can't know that.' You can't know that it's going to be okay._

"No, I can. I'll make sure of it."


End file.
